Artist
“I often remember visions of fast-moving landscapes from the window of our car as we drove up the coast of California for a family vacation. Feeling the warm sun on my face and the light flashing my eyes as the sun passed behind trees or buildings, causing them to squint and narrow. It is in these blurs and reflections that I ultimately find the basis of my work, where the visions are loaded with memories, illusion and phenomena. I observe reflections in windows and how it alters perception. I look at how windows in a building crop the view removing information and revealing new information, and how stained glass places color over our view of the outside. It is in man-made structures that I place my vision and try to recreate illusion, tweaking the viewers’ perception and reinventing expectation. I am an observer of light and perception; I use this vision to create photographic images and installations that play with these ideas.”
Monica Reafsnyder-Furmanski received her Masters of Fine Art from Claremont Graduate University in 2004. While attending Scripps College from 1993 to 1996 Monica worked with the internationally recognized artist John Baldessari as well as several of Scripps College’s fine art faculty, Nancy Macko, Susan Rankaitis, and Hillary Mushkin. Monica recently had a solo exhibition at Fringe Exhibitions in Chinatown, Los Angeles and at Upfront Gallery in Ventura, California. She and her husband Matthew Furmanski continue making artwork and raising their three children.